Connect with Us

National Register

National Park Service

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation's historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archeological resources.

Since 1941, Ghost Ranch Lodge in Tucson, Arizona, has played an important role in the tourist commerce, specifically for its influence on the planning, design and development of subsequent motor hotels as seen along Miracle Mile Road at the city’s northern gateway. The work of master architect Josias Thomas Joesler as conveyed through his innovative site plan, artistic Period Revival design, rustic use of materials and a high understanding of workmanship; and for the subsequent evolution of motel architecture and planning as conveyed through its subsequent additions of buildings and spaces. The Ghost ranch Lodge is Tucson’s first destination courtyard motor lodge that combined the access and affordability of a motel with the character of a dude ranch and the amenities of a resort. The 5.8-acre Ghost ranch Lodge was one of the first and largest tourist accommodations---which provided affordable accommodations with up-scale accommodations for long-term guests. When the Ghost Ranch Lodge opened in 1941 it was a group of eight romanticized Mexican casitas immediately surrounding a formal courtyard and central terrace that created the feeling of a destination rather than a motor court. The tourist business began blossoming in the “old Pueblo” of Tucson in 1922.